A device for slowing the movement of a door, drawer or similar movable member, having releasable locking means.
The present invention relates to a device for slowing the movement of a door, drawer or similar member which is movable with respect to a fixed structure and urged by unidirectional thrust means.
The present invention relates to a device for slowing the movement of a door, drawer or similar member which is movable with respect to a fixed structure and urged by unidirectional thrust means, of a type described in the preamble to Claim 1.
A device of this type is known from British Patent Application GB-A 2 062 933 and is normally used to smooth the movement of a slidable drawer caused by spring means, as used in certain types of ashtray fitted in the dashboard of motor vehicles, or of pivoted doors, of a type used, for example in tape recorder apparatus.
It is also known that such drawers or doors often have latch closure means which are released by a light pressure on the drawer, so that pressure is used to carry out both opening and closing operations.
The document U.S. Pat. No. 4,893,522 describes a rotary damper including a cylindrical rotor, a casing with a shaft for insertion into the cylindrical rotor and a cylindrical wall enclosing this shaft, with a viscous fluid between the inner surface of the cylindrical rotor and the casing shaft. A spiral spring is fitted between the cylindrical wall of the casing and the outer surface of the rotor and is wound up by the rotation induced by an applied torque. This device has incorporated latch closure means, including an excursion groove formed either in the inner surface of the casing lid or in an end surface of the cylindrical rotor and having a heart-shaped cam groove at one end and an operating pin either provided on the lid or on the cylindrical rotor, operable to slide along the groove.
The document EP-A-0 199 242 describes a device in which the latch closure means include a sphere engaged in a rectilinear groove, formed in the lateral surface of the stator, and urged by a shaped groove formed in the lateral wall of the rotor and having a cam defining a forward path and a return path for the sphere.